Maya Malik, MSSW earned their Masters of Science in Social Work from the Columbia School of Social Work, focusing on International Social Welfare and Rights for Immigrants and Refugees through program design, research, and evaluation. Mx. Malik  previously worked as a Training and Communications Coordinator for the Women’s Health Unit (WHU) at Boston Medical Center supporting the multi-state, NIDA funded, HEALing Communities Study. Throughout their academic career, Maya has taught low income youth of color in different communities in the United States and India utilizing arts-based learning techniques and created interactive educational programming to address the negative effects of poverty, trauma, and structural oppression on attainment for students in marginalized communities. Maya is entering McGill School of Social Work’s doctoral program this fall to research how to utilize arts based Youth-Led Participatory Research (YPAR) methods to work with young Black American girls who have been justice-involved to improve educational intervention programs. Here you can find blogs written by Maya about their time working in rural India.